Most of us use a lot of oil without ever driving a car

By Harry Fuller, ZDNet.com, Dec. 1, 2009

Nearly all the plastic and resins in our daily life are–you guessed it–made from petroleum. The case on your iPod and the food wrappers in the vending machine: processed from oil. I recently talked with the CEO of a small firm that hopes to help change that.

He’s Frederic Scheer, Founder and CEO of Cereplast, Inc. The California-based company has two plants turning out plastic resin, one in California and one in Indiana. The raw material for their resins are biomass, from potatoes to corn. Any good source of vegetable starch. Scheer says Cereplast is now working toward using wood chips and other biomass not a potential food.

TWO CLASSES OF PLASTIC RESIN

Cereplast, says Scheer, is already selling two classes of resin. One is compostable. The other is permanent or “hybrid.” The plastic tableware or the biodegradable dog poop bags are in the first class. Plastics for permanent use are found in appliances, toys, toothbrushes, credit cards, card keys, hand-held devices, and cars. That’s the permanent variety.

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